Duke used a balanced offense, a connected defense and a few of those patented Duke runs to dominate Virginia Tech Saturday night. The final was 81-65 and it could have been worse for the visiting Hokies had Duke not given away some of the huge margin once they emptied the bench.
The win keeps Duke undefeated in Cameron and runs their record to 21-8 overall, 12-6 in the ACC. For those who care about such things Jon Scheyer has now won more games than any first-year coach in Duke history and if tonight is any indication there’s a lot more to come.
Tech only led once, 3-2 after a Sean Pedulla 3-pointer.
Duke responded with an 8-0 run, four of those points by Mark Mitchell.
“I thought it was maybe Mark Mitchell’s best game,” Scheyer said. “I thought Mark gave us a huge boost consistently throughout the whole game.”
Mitchell ended with 17 points--his best against ACC opponents-- and eight rebounds. He credited his success to that old standby, taking what the defense gives you but trust me he was taking more than the defense was giving him.
And junior captain Jeremy Roach had one of his best games in a Duke uniform, 19 points, 11 assists, five rebounds, 8-13 from the field.
“Jeremy Roach was on another level,” Scheyer said.
Eleven assists is Roach’s career high.
“Just give credit to my teammates for catching the ball, finishing, making open shots,” he said.
Duke withstood some adversity in the first half. After falling behind 19-5-that’s a 17-2 Duke run--Tech crept back in, closing to 22-16.
Duke was leading 29-18 when they had a disastrous possession. Jake Grandison was called for a flagrant foul. It was Grandison’s second foul. Hunter Cattoor made both foul shots. Tech retained possession and Grant Basile drew Dereck Lively II’s second foul. He made both foul shots. Four points on one possession and the second foul on two key players. All in seven seconds.
This is the kind of thing that could have rattled a young team. Instead Roach scored inside, Mitchell knocked down a 3 and Duke went into halftime up 43-32.
“Just staying connected” Lively said.
Lively picked up his third foul 18 seconds into the second half.
Scheyer left him in.
“He knows that I’m a smart player,” Lively said. “He knows that I’m not going to get handsy and he knows that I can stay solid.”
It paid off. Lively got two quick defensive rebounds and a reverse dunk as Duke broke it open, extending the lead from 45-37 to 61-37.
Tech coach Mike Young said that during that decisive 16-0 run “it got away from us. We missed a couple of good shots, we had a couple of turnovers and that hurt us. You just can’t do that in Cameron.”
Tech’s best chance to mount a comeback might have been to turn Cattoor loose, the same Hunter Cattoor who torched Duke to the tune of 31 points in last season’s ACC Tournament title game.
Tyrese Proctor glued himself to Cattoor, holding him to four field-goal attempts. He made two but 50% of four shots is a lot different than 50% of 20 shots.
“Give Tyrese a lot of credit,” Scheyer said. “You have to be incredibly disciplined to chase him all over the court. Tyrese won that challenge. But we’re lucky to have bigs who can switch.”
Duke’s biggest lead was 25 points at 75-50. Duke got a little careless with the ball and the deep bench played like it.
Not remotely a problem.
Roach and Mitchell were joined in double figures by Lively (13), Kyle Filipowski (12) and Proctor (10). Lively added seven rebounds and three blocks, Proctor five assists and that great defense.
Duke outrebounded Tech 37-26 and had 18 assists against nine turnovers.
Grant Basile led Tech with 15 points.
The players talked about communicating and connection and team work and Scheyer said these intangibles are fueling this late-season run.
“We understand what it takes to win,” Scheyer added,” the value of every possession, the value of talking on switches, making the right kick, the right read.”
Five guys in double figures? “The balance is key. Those five guys scoring in double figures is great.”
Duke’s two Triangle rivals to finish the regular season, neither game remotely close to a sure thing for Duke. But Duke is playing its best ball of the season and this is a pretty good time to meet that threshold.
This is the beginning of that winning streak you were calling for after the UVA fiasco. :)
Another payback. Now we can take down the Wolfpack and get another payback while going undefeated at home.
GoDuke!